Auburn at Alabama (Illegal Pitches)

[Tex]

Watched the Auburn at Alabama softball game on March 24, on ESPNU.

In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Auburn's relief pitcher, who wore #1, doubled touched on every pitch.

Not a single illegal pitch was called from any of the 3 umpires. Do not understand as to why none were called.

Does anyone have any information as to when the illegal pitch of double touching became legal? I never received the memo!!

[Manny A]

First off, base umpires aren't responsible for calling illegal pitches involving double-touches. At least I wouldn't do that to my PU partner.

What exactly did she do wrong?

[Crabby_Bob]

Originally Posted by Tex

Does anyone have any information as to when the illegal pitch of double touching became legal? I never received the memo!!

When the whining ensued after illegal pitches were called during a recent WCWS.

We never see a complete pitch sequence from the plate umpire's point of view. The view from the center field camera appears to show the pitcher taking her position on the pitcher's plate and then the hands apparently coming together with the ball in her glove. Then the hands separate and, with the ball in her glove, she takes a signal from the catcher. She reaches into the glove to get her grip, does her windup and delivery.

She didn't always apparently put her hands together immediately after stepping on the pitcher's plate. The side camera shot showed that she would sometimes adjust her glove with her pitching hand on the outside of the glove immediately after taking her position on the pitching plate.

[KJUmp]

Watched the replay....saw it the same way Crabby did.

[Tex]

Crabby Bob,
Don't understand your reply. "The side camera shot showed that she would sometimes adjust her glove with her pitching hand on the outside of the glove immediately after taking her position on the pitching plate."

Now when she started her wind-up, her hands came together again, which made a double touch. This is an illegal pitch.

[Crabby_Bob]

Originally Posted by Tex

Crabby Bob,
Don't understand your reply. "The side camera shot showed that she would sometimes adjust her glove with her pitching hand on the outside of the glove immediately after taking her position on the pitching plate."

Now when she started her wind-up, her hands came together again, which made a double touch. This is an illegal pitch.

She would occasionally take her position on the pitcher's plate with the ball in her glove hand and then adjust the glove with her pitching hand. When adjusting the glove, the pitching hand was outside of the glove. ICBW, but I don't believe anyone would interpret that as "Hey, I'm about to pitch" because the pitching hand never made contact with the ball or went inside the glove.